Fanurio

How to sync data between two computers August 05, 2008 If you install Fanurio on two different computers (desktop and laptop) or two different platforms (Windows and Mac OS X), it's very likely you will want to keep your data synchronized. Here are some common situations: If you do consulting work and you need to travel a lot, you may have a laptop and a desktop PC in your office. When you get back to the office, you may want to sync the desktop with the laptop. You're a big Mac fan but unfortunately you have to do some of your work on Windows. You want to use Fanurio to track time while on Windows and then sync this information with the Mac.This post explains how to synchronize your data between two computers. There are multiple ways to do it, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Hopefully, this post will make it easy for you to choose the right one.I. USB stick installationThe first solution is also the easiest. Instead of installing Fanurio on two or more computers, install it on a USB stick. This will save you the trouble of synchronizing the data because it will always be kept on the stick.Download the cross-platform version and follow these instructions to install it. The nice thing about the cross-platform version is that you can install it on a USB stick and then run it from there on any computer, whether it uses Windows, Linux or Mac OS X.Recommended: If you have to work on your client's computer and you don't want to install Fanurio there.II. Shared folderThis solution is a bit more technical because it requires you to configure Fanurio manually. By default, Fanurio keeps its data somewhere in your user account but it can be configured to keep it somewhere else. Please read this section for more information.If you can create a folder that is accessible from all computers, you could configure Fanurio to keep its data there instead of the default location. Follow these instructions to learn how to configure Fanurio manually and then add this line to

The settings file:database.dir=PATH_TO_SHARED_FOLDERYou need to replace PATH_TO_SHARED_FOLDER with the actual path. Assuming you are on Windows and you have a shared folder called Folder on computer Alpha, the path is //Alpha/Folder. If you have a dual-boot system (Linux and Windows), you can access the Windows folders from Linux.IMPORTANT: If you share the database folder between two computers, make sure you don't use it at the same time on both computers. The database doesn't support concurrent access.Recommended: If you can share a folder between two computers or two platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux).III. File synchronizationAnother solution is file synchronization software like FolderShare (reviewed here) which can help you synchronize the data folders of each Fanurio install. The location of the data folders is presented in this section. Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Fanurio/data Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\Application Data\Fanurio\data Vista: C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Fanurio\data Linux: ~/.fanurio/dataIMPORTANT: As is the case with shared folder, you shouldn't work independently on each computer and then expect the data to be merged by the synchronization software. Instead, try to synchronize it after each use.Recommended: If you want to keep your data synchronized no matter where you are. This is a more general solution than the shared folder approach.IV. Backup transferThe last solution and probably the less practical one is to create a backup on one computer and then restore it on the other. The main disadvantage is that you have to do this manually every time you switch computers otherwise they will be out of sync.You can read this post for more details on how to create and restore a backup.Recommended: Only if you need to use a second computer from time to time otherwise there's too much overhead to create and restore the backup.As you can see, none of these methods is perfect but they work in many situations. One feature that we intend to implement is the synchronization of multiple computers from Fanurio thus eliminating the need to rely on outside tools.

Fanurio 1.9 Released February 04, 2008 Today we released Fanurio 1.9, our 10th official release. It's actually the 12th if you consider 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 but those were bug fix releases so I'm not counting them :).The release notes page documents all the changes while postings like this one will be explaining only the most relevant features. These postings are meant to give you the big picture on what's going on. I'll publish a new article here every time a new version is released.So, why should you use version 1.9? First of all because it has much better project reports, second because it's better integrated with the Mac and third because it has more billing features.I know this doesn't tell you much so let's take a closer look at each one of them.Better project reportsVersion 1.8 had two reports, a time log report that displayed the recorded time and a project report that displayed all the items of a project and their time. Due to numerous requests for better time reporting, we've decided to merge these two reports into a single report.With this new report, you can see how much time you've worked for a client or how much uninvoiced billable time you have for a certain project. Now, it's easier to see time by date, week, month or year for one or more projects.I should probably emphasize the fact that this report is about time and not about money. A money report is planned for the next release.Better Mac integrationEver since we launched Fanurio, we wanted to have a Mac version. But we don't just want it to run on Mac, we want Fanurio to be a good Mac citizen. That's why we've added two important new Mac features. Fanurio can now import contacts from Address Book and it can detect when the computer becomes idle.Idle time detection was available on Windows only but now it works on any Mac that runs Tiger or Leopard. Previous versions of Mac don't have a reliable method of detecting idle time. But what is idle time detection?Let's say you want to write something and before you begin to work, you start the timer to see how long it takes. After ten minutes, the phone rings and you leave the computer for half an hour forgetting about the timer. When you'll get back, Fanurio will ask you to do something with that half

An hour you've been away.Idle time detection is what Fanurio does when you start the timer but you're not using the computer.Improved billingFanurio is about time tracking and billing. These are the core features which we are constantly improving based on direct feedback. This version makes no exception.For instance, you can move time from one project item to another if you put it there accidentally. You can also add time to an item without specifying the start or the end time of the day.One cool new billing feature is the possibility to distinguish domestic clients from foreign ones. Let's say you are from Canada and one of your clients is from Germany. Whenever you will create an invoice for that client, Fanurio will know to display numbers, dates and currency according to German rules.These are roughly the most relevant features and improvements of this version. The release notes page lists them all.I hope you'll enjoy this new version and that it will make you more productive.